


Too Old For Trick-or-Treating

by ofmay



Category: My Chemical Romance
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Halloween, High School, Illnesses, Kid!Fic, M/M, Middle School, Trick or Treating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-25
Updated: 2014-10-25
Packaged: 2018-02-22 12:42:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2508266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ofmay/pseuds/ofmay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taking Mikey's turn of doing dishes didn't usually bother Gerard, but when he ended up doing them for a week straight every night, he got upset. On Friday night, Mikey hadn't even been feeling that bad! Gerard's mom just let him bypass his chores because Mikey's idiotic little friend Frank was spending the night. </p>
<p>((short little one shot in celebration of Halloween!))</p>
            </blockquote>





	Too Old For Trick-or-Treating

**Author's Note:**

> I only meant for this to be like 1k words, so I guess I'm just overzealous. Also please excuse any spelling and grammatical errors you may find.

It was eight o'clock, and Mikey still hadn't washed the dishes. Gerard would know, because after him grumbling and complaining for a solid five minutes, his mother coaxed him into it. Mikey was sick, she had said, and either way, nobody in the house could rearrange the silverware as well as Gerard could.   
  
_Piss off_ , Gerard thought as he rinsed off his family's dinner plates. It was true that Mikey was ill, he had been since the first week of October, but that meant he wasn't able to wash the dishes himself? Whatever.   
  
Taking Mikey's turn of doing dishes didn't usually bother Gerard, but when he ended up doing them for a week straight every night, he got upset. On Friday night, Mikey hadn't even been feeling that bad! Gerard's mom just let him bypass his chores because Mikey's idiotic little friend Frank was spending the night.   
  
And when Gerard said little, he meant little. Frank Iero was the tiniest eighth grader in Belleville. Not that that was any of Gerard's business, he was a freshmen and hardly knew anything about Frank, but he was still sort of familiar with the kid. Ever since Frank and Mikey got assigned first and second chair in the saxophone section of middle school band, they'd been inseparable.   
  
After Gerard was finished with the dishes, he picked up a slice of cold leftover pizza from the fridge and bit into it as he made his way over to the staircase that went down to his room in the basement. He had just finished the slice and gotten to the door of his room - left ajar - when he saw Mikey and Frank lying on his bed, watching a movie on his television.   
  
"Why are you in my room?!" Gerard exclaimed, yanking the door open all the way and causing both Mikey and Frank to jump.   
  
"Dad is watching his programs on the TV upstairs so Mom told me we could use yours!" Mikey barked back.   
  
Gerard groaned, burying his face in his hand that wasn't covered in pizza grease before looking back up at his little brother. After a full minute of staring at each other, Gerard rolled his eyes.   
  
"What are you watching?" he asked, giving an exasperated sigh as he climbed onto his bed next to Frank.   
  
"Return of the Jedi," Mikey replied, dipping his hand into a bag of barbecue potato chips and passing them over to Frank.   
  
"Those are _my_  chips…" Gerard mumbled before Frank passed them over to him with a small smile.   
  
"Hey, Gerard, what's up?" Frank said in his pubescent voice that was too low to belong to such a small kid.   
  
Gerard just shrugged, crunching a handful of chips loudly in his mouth.   
  
"You know Halloween's coming up, right?"   
  
Gerard shrugged again.   
  
"Mikey and I have been planning on going trick-or-treating for my birthday, wanna come with us?"   
  
Gerard raised his eyebrows, taken aback by Frank's offer. "Uhm, well, I'm a bit too old for that…"   
  
"Psh, that's what everyone says. Nobody will care if you go trick-or-treating," Frank assured him.   
  
Gerard glanced at his brother, who simply shrugged nonchalantly and reached over to take the bag of chips back.   
  
"I'll think about it," Gerard chuckled, turning to the television. When he looked back over, Frank was smiling such a huge, toothy grin at him, Gerard couldn't help but smile in return.   
  
When the end credits began rolling across the television screen two hours later, Gerard yawned and sat up from where he was slumped over against the headboard to see that Frank and Mikey were both fast asleep, lying down on their sides facing the television. On _his_  bed.  
  
Gerard sighed and got up, walking over to the television and turning it off before staring at the two figures on his bed and weighing his options. Not having the heart to wake them or make them leave, Gerard silently changed for bed and crawled in under the covers next to Frank. He switched the lamp on his nightstand off and fell asleep instantly.   
  
When he woke up at seven the next morning, Frank and Mikey were both gone.   
***  
Mikey's illnesses got progressively worse. When he first started showing symptoms, he was simply sneezing and blowing his nose a lot. Soon after, he began waking up in cold sweat in the middle of the night, and two days before Halloween he began throwing up. Immensely.   
  
Gerard wasn't sure how Frank seemed to have the immune system of a super human because he'd been coming over every day and keeping Mikey company in his miserable state, and he _still hadn't caught Mikey's sick_. Gerard had even started sniffling, it was not fair.   
  
Even when Mikey went home sick during school one day, Frank still stopped by after his last class was over and brought his friend a bowl of soup Gerard had warmed up for him.   
  
It was sickeningly sweet, Gerard thought, the way Mikey and Frank's friendship was so strong that they couldn't stay away from each other, even when one of them was kneeling over the toilet the entire time they were together. Hmph. Saxophone geeks.   
  
Gerard assumed that Frank wasn't telling his parents just how sick his friend actually was, because if he did, Gerard was sure Frank's parents wouldn't let him hang around Mikey anymore until he got better. Gerard's own parents worked 'round the clock and were hardly home until late at night, so they couldn't kick Frank out if they wanted to. And either way, if they couldn't be there to nurse their own son, at least they had this tiny eighth grader to do it for them.   
  
Halloween happened to fall on Friday, and despite the small party the high school held during fourth period, Gerard was still so far behind on his science project he didn't have much fun at all that day. He definitely wasn't looking forward to the weekend, either, which was sad. But really, make a video of himself experimenting with a minimum of six variables using Newton's laws while practising the scientific method? No thanks.   
  
He decided to bypass riding the bus home that day when school was over to get away from all the loud, obnoxious seventh graders that rode his bus. Instead he walked home, the chilly October wind nipping at his skin as he repeated the steps to the scientific method over in his head.   
  
_Question, research, hypothesis, observation, data, conclusion- or did data come before observation?_  And he was buried too deep in thought to notice that he wasn't actually walking alone at all.   
  
Frank was close behind Gerard, listening as he mumbled angrily to himself. Frank kept on Gerard's tracks for two blocks until he got tired of waiting for Gerard to notice him.   
  
"Hi, Gee-rard!" he exclaimed gleefully in Gerard's ear, causing him to jump and look around, startled.  
  
Gerard's expression immediately softened when he saw Frank, the eighth grader's nose pink from the autumn air. "Hey, Frank," he replied, shoving his hands in his pockets and speeding up his walking pace a bit.   
  
Frank had to jog a bit to fully catch up with him. "Wait for me! Anyway, today's my birthday you know?"  
  
_What a crappy holiday to have your birthday fall on,_  Gerard thought to himself before saying aloud, "Oh, really? Happy birthday then, dude."  
  
"Yeah, I'm thirteen now," Frank stated proudly.   
  
"Hmm. That's cool. I turned fourteen in April," Gerard chuckled.   
  
"Today during school we had this big Halloween themed gift exchange party with the entire middle school, and the teachers got everyone to sing Happy Birthday to me, it was so awesome," Frank rambled.   
  
Gerard shivered at the thought of that ever happening to him. Attention gave him anxiety, so a large crowd serenading him would probably send him into panic mode.   
  
"So we're still up for trick-or-treating tonight, right?"   
  
"What?" Gerard scrunched his eyebrows together in confusion, trying to remember when he ever said he'd go trick-or-treating with Frank.   
  
"Right?" Frank repeated, less confident this time.   
  
The absolute last way Gerard wanted to top off his horrible thirty-first was going trick-or-treating like a pack of nine-year-olds, but the falter in Frank's voice hit home somewhere in the bundle of sympathy buried deep inside Gerard.   
  
He sighed softly, glancing over at Frank who was walking with his head down. "Yeah, I'll go with you."  
  
Frank snapped out of it at once, his perky attitude erupting once again. "Awesome! Also, Mikey said he doesn't feel well enough to go, so it's just gonna be you and me. I'll come to your house at six, wear something nice!"   
  
"W- what?" Gerard stuttered.   
  
Frank only waved as he jogged across the road, leaving Gerard standing in utter confusion a couple houses down from his own. Hmm. Trick-or-treating alone with Frank? Weird, but probably bearable.   
***  
Gerard's pretty sure Mikey would have died laughing when he discussed his rendezvous plans with Frank, if not for the fact that Mikey went into a coughing fit instead.   
  
After Gerard got him calmed down a bit and made sure he wasn't trying to hold down any bile, he repeated himself.   
  
"I'm going trick-or-treating with Frank tonight."   
  
Mikey just stared incredulously for a few seconds before shrugging indifferently. "Good for you. I'd definitely go if I didn't feel so terrible, but it's good that you're going. Frank really likes you."  
  
For some odd reason, Gerard found himself blushing. "He does?"  
  
Mikey nodded, readjusting the blankets on his bed to get more comfortable. "Tell him that I'll go with him next year."  
  
"Next year?" Gerard gaped over dramatically. "You guys'll be _way_  too old then."  
  
Mikey simply rolled his eyes. "So what are you gonna wear for your costume?"   
  
Shit. Gerard hadn't even thought about that.   
  
"Uhm…" He wracked his brain trying to think of an easy enough costume that would suffice for the occasion. "Huh."  
  
"I dare you to be a sheet ghost."  
  
"No! That would look dumb," Gerard scoffed.    
  
"That's the point, Gee!" Mikey exclaimed before he began wheezing again.   
  
Gerard ran to the kitchen to get Mikey a glass of water and saw that it was already 5:30, Frank would be there in half an hour, shit, shit.   
  
Gerard returned to Mikey's room and handed him the glass of water, which he gladly accepted. He downed the glass easily and cleared his throat. "Just go as what I was gonna go as, a greaser."   
  
Gerard paused. "A what?"  
  
Mikey frowned, sending Gerard a cold stare full of annoyance. "An outsider?"  
  
Gerard didn't respond, a look of utter confusion across his face.   
  
"I swear, do you ever pay attention in class? The Outsiders is a book and greasers are characters in it. You should have read it last year, did you?"  
  
Now that Gerard thought about it, he probably did but he never remembered books after reading them anyway.   
  
"White shirt, jean jacket, blue jeans, sneakers. Got it?"  
  
Gerard nodded.   
  
"Good, now warm me up some soup before Frank gets here."   
  
Thirty minutes later, Mikey was slicking Gerard's hair back with some of their father's hair gel and a bowl of alphabet soup was in the microwave when the doorbell rang.   
  
Plastic bag in hand, Gerard waved goodbye at Mikey and made his way to the door.   
  
"You better bring me back some sweet tarts!" Mikey yelled at his brother's retreating back.   
  
Gerard pretended to not have heard as he opened the door and stepped outside with Frank, who was wearing a matching costume.   
  
"Mikey's-?" Frank chuckled as he saw Gerard's attire.   
  
"Totally his idea. So do you have some sort of route?" Gerard wondered aloud as he followed Frank down the sidewalk. "I'm assuming you never quit doing this since you were little."  
  
"I know where I'm going." Frank was practically beaming, as if spending time with Gerard was the new highlight of his life or something. "Downtown first, and then we'll make our way around town."  
  
Young boys and girls in superhero capes and grin reaper masks flooded the streets wherever Gerard looked, arms laden with plastic jack-o-lantern buckets that already contained numerous pieces of candy. Certain streets near downtown were blocked off for trick-or-treaters, and all the shop owners were wearing costumes and handing out candy in their doorways.   
  
If Gerard was being honest, Frank turned out to be a lot cooler than he thought. For one thing, when they went to play the Halloween games that had been set up in the community building, Frank got a bunch of perks just because he was small.   
  
Gerard suspected that people thought he was simply taking his younger brother trick-or-treating because Frank could definitely pass as a ten year old. He also let Gerard eat all of his skittles after he found out they were Gerard's favorite and they even made fun of some people's costumes together. Over all, Frank's personality resembled Mikey's so much that Gerard thought maybe, just maybe they could give the friendship thing a chance. After all, Gerard had maybe three friends at the most at his high school. Being friends with eighth graders wasn't that lame anyway, right?  
  
The sky grew dark almost rapidly, and Frank and Gerard soon found themselves relying on the street lamps for a source of light as they visited house after house, making their way through the town. Frank knew all the houses that gave out good candy and gave Gerard pointers, like which houses to avoid because the people who lived there were mean or they gave out pencils and apples.   
  
Gerard wasn't a big candy eater, but he didn't at all regret carrying around his plastic bag of cavities as long as he got to share them with Frank.   
  
"So you know Ms. Degroot from the middle school?" Frank asked.   
  
Gerard nodded, content on letting Frank do most of the talking, or at least start every conversation.   
  
"Okay so there's this kid in my English class named Steve and he's dumb as shit, right? Ms. Degroot always sends him to the counselor to have him get 'help' with his homework, even though the counselor just ends up giving him all the answers anyway, and he's acing the class! How bullshit is that?!"  
  
Gerard laughed. "Ms. Degroot is such a bitch, that's not surprising. And I've heard of Steve and agree that he's dumb. Steve McCaster, right? I have his sister Michelle in my Algebra class and I just want to wring her neck sometimes."  
  
Frank looked gleeful. "Really?"   
  
Gerard nodded, eyes widened to prove his point. "Michelle tries using the same method as Steve does but in high school the teachers are much different. You'd be surprised at how many times she's stood at the teacher's desk and sobbed. It's so annoying. He just ignores her too, you'd think she'd learn."  
  
"Right?! I can't stand when people cry to teachers. It's so pointless and just makes you look like an idiot."   
  
Gerard nodded in agreement before reaching into his bag and popping a mini snickers in his mouth.   
  
"So what's high school really like, then?"   
  
Gerard shrugged.   
  
"Do you get to dissect frogs or pigs?"  
  
"Gross, no."   
  
"What's lunchtime like?"   
  
Gerard turned to look at Frank who was beaming from ear to ear, and a sudden wave of warmth washed over him. He was such a cute kid.   
  
"Freshmen and juniors have one line and seniors and sophomores stand in a different one and you go through a room where they give you a tray, it's like at the middle school except everyone eats at the same time."  
  
"But doesn't it get crowded?"  
  
"It gets crowded like hell, but it's still kind of nice. You get to meet a lot of people because nobody turns you down to sit at their table when you have nowhere else to sit, know what I mean?"  
  
"Kinda. I heard that the grading scale is different, how different?"  
  
Gerard thought for a second. "An F is a 59 percent, so it's a lot easier to get a good grade. Unless of course you have science with Ms. Palmer. She rounds down percents, and she's a bitter asshole."  
  
Frank giggled. "It's funny hearing you swear."  
  
"Wh- how is it funny?!" Gerard exclaimed incredulously.   
  
Frank looked down at the sidewalk they were treading on, still smiling, and shrugged. "I've been friends with Mikey for years and you always seemed kinda cool to me, but you're just so quiet. You act like you'd never talk to anyone you didn't see, mm… see worthy."   
  
Gerard wanted to laugh in Frank's face and explain that it was the other way around, but the tone of his voice rendered Gerard speechless. He struggled to find the right words, but none came out, so he just shrugged as if it didn't mean anything.  
  
They walked in silence for a while, stopping at houses every now and then, thanking the person giving out candy. Before long it became very chilly and Gerard rubbed his hands together, wishing he'd worn an extra jacket over his jean one.   
  
"Do you know what time it is?" he asked, looking over at Frank who was busy chewing on a Hershey's bar.   
  
"I don't know," Frank replied, mouth full.   
  
"Do you think we should head back before it gets too cold?" Gerard suggested. After all, the amount of kids running around with candy bags had thinned out. Only a handful of trick-or-treaters were still roaming around.   
  
Frank nodded in agreement. They turned around and made their way back in the direction of Gerard's house, the late night cold imminent.   
  
When Gerard had to stop and kneel down to retie his shoelace that had somehow unraveled, Frank stood next to him and waited, causing Gerard to notice how red Frank's fingertips were. He wasn't even wearing his skeleton gloves, so his hands were probably freezing. Gerard had the strange urge to hold them in his own, but didn't. Brotherly instincts, he decided.   
  
When they reached the block Gerard lived on, Gerard turned to Frank, who was still walking beside him. He needed to cross the road to get to his house, so what was Frank doing, walking him home or something? He was fourteen, he could walk home by himself.   
  
"What are you doing?" Gerard's words sounded bitter as they left his lips, and he instantly regretted it.   
  
Frank only looked confused. "Walking home…?"   
  
"Where do you live?"  
  
Frank gingerly pointed to the brown house directly across from Gerard's.   
  
"Wait, we're neighbors?! I never knew that, how long have you lived there?"   
  
"My family moved here when I was four," Frank replied irritably, as if he thought Gerard was asking too many questions.   
  
Gerard noticed.   
  
He followed Frank up to his house, trudging very, very slowly. Before they reached Frank's driveway, Gerard placed a hand on his shoulder.   
  
"Frank, is something wrong?"  
  
Frank shook his head quickly.   
  
"Did I do something?"  
  
Frank shook his head again, less enthusiastic this time.   
  
"Did you at least have a good birthday?" Gerard asked, lightening the tone of his voice.   
  
Frank contemplated the question for a moment before smiling softly. "Yeah, I did. Thanks for hanging out with me. Don't worry though, I'll bother Mikey next time."  
  
"Oh, you didn't bother me," Gerard said, trying to sound as reassuring as possible.   
  
Frank didn't respond, only continued smiling as he walked up to his doorstep, Gerard right behind him. When he reached the door, he noticed Gerard was still beside him and raised an eyebrow in confusion, as he hadn't asked Gerard to come over or anything.   
  
He turned to look full on at Gerard saying, "Now is it my turn to ask what you're doing-?"  
  
He voice stopped short when he noticed the way Gerard was looking at him. There was something in his eyes that practically knocked the wind out of Frank. Why the hell was he staring like that?   
  
Neither Gerard nor Frank knew what came over them as they slowly leaned closer to each other before pressing their lips together softly, Gerard bringing his hand up to cup the side of Frank's face.   
  
A couple seconds later they jumped apart, as if just realising what they were doing. Gerard stared down at his feet and slowly took his hand away from Frank's face, only to feel a cold hand catch it. When he looked up they were both blushing deeply, and Frank gave Gerard's hand a small squeeze before letting it drop down by his side.   
  
"I uhm- I really like you," Frank mumbled, finding it difficult to talk through the smile he wasn't able repress. God, he was so cute.   
  
Gerard could hardly contain the way his cheeks flushed darker as he fought back a smirk. "I like you too."  
  
"I've actually uh-" Frank awkwardly cleared his throat. "I've liked you for a long time now, I just don't know if the feeling is mutual or not."   
  
Gerard smiled sympathetically. He wanted so badly to say that it was most definitely mutual, but he knew it wasn't. He didn't understand why he wanted Frank to like him, maybe it was just the sense of achievement that came with it; that fact that he was able to be crushed on.   
  
The thought of that made Gerard sad but also upset with himself. He couldn't lead a kid on like that.   
  
"I don't know. You're my little brother's best friend," was all he said.   
  
Frank shrugged as if to say, "Why should that get in the way?" but he didn't reply.   
  
They stood in comfortable silence, staring at each other in a way that wasn't creepy, only reassuring.  
  
That was, until Frank motioned toward his door. "I should uh- get going. You too."   
  
"Yeah, yeah, I'll just…"  
  
Gerard and Frank moved awkwardly, knowing they needed to get home but craving each other's presence too much to let go.   
  
Gerard broke the trance. "I had fun tonight. I'll see you later?"  
  
"Yeah, see you later."   
  
Gerard turned and made his way briskly across the street and into his house, careful not to look back and see whether Frank had gone into his house or whether he was watching. When he got inside, Mikey was sitting on the couch and immediately began puking into his bucket as soon as he saw his brother.   
  
Gerard ran over to Mikey, patting him on the back gently. "I take it you're not feeling much better?" he asked sympathetically.   
  
Mikey shook his head. "My temp is back down to ninety-eight and I've only had to have one dose of cough syrup. It's just-" He shuddered, turning to Gerard and exclaiming, "You kissed Frank!"   
  
Gerard's eyes widened and he felt his face grow unbearably hot. "Y-you saw that?!"   
  
"Who is this you're kissing, sweetheart?"   
  
Their mother walked into the living room with a laundry basket under her arm, smiling softly.   
  
"Frank! My friend Frank!" Mikey cried, nose wrinkling in disgust. He then proceeded to pick up his bucket and sprint out of the room.   
  
Their mother only chuckled. "That neighbor boy? Oh, he's a good kid, but we don't need you deflowering him at such a young age, now do we?" she said suggestively, topping it all off with a wink.   
  
Gerard's face only grew darker, so he turned and ran after Mikey, finding him on his bed in his bedroom, lying face down against a pillow.   
  
"He kissed Frank, he kissed Frank, he kissed Frank…" Mikey was chanting over and over as Gerard entered his room and sat down on the bed.   
  
"C'mon Mikes," he urged, shaking his brother a bit.   
  
Taking away the pillow from his face and bolting upright, Mikey said, "We're over. Me and Frank, we can't be friends anymore now 'cause I'll never be able to look at him the same way."  
  
"Aw, that's not true," Gerard replied. Just to mess with Mikey a little, he wrapped an arm around Mikey's shoulder and pulled him in, pressing a kiss to his temple.   
  
Mikey made a gagging noise, and Gerard seriously thought for a second that he was going to throw up again.   
  
"You two _kissed!_  That's fucking disgusting!" Mikey wailed.   
  
Almost as if to prove his point, Mikey's face suddenly grew pale and he began retching into his bucket. Gerard guessed that maybe his flu wasn't getting better after all. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! My tumblr is talesofchemical.tumblr.com in case anyone is interested :)


End file.
